Geochemical and petrological studies of high sulfur coal and overburden from Makum coalfield (Northeast India) towards understanding and mitigation of acid mine drainage

Opencast coal mining produces trash of soil and rock containing various minerals,that are usually dumped nearby the abandoned sites which causes severe environmental concern including the production of acid mine drainage(AMD)through oxidation pyrite minerals.The current study entailed assessing the potential production of AMD from an opencast coal mining region in Northeast part of India.In order to have a comprehensive overview of the AMD problem in Makum coalfield,the physico-chemical,geochemical,and petrological characteristics of the coal and overburden(OB)samples collected from the Makum coalfield(Northeast India)were thoroughly investigated.The maceral compositions reveal that coal features all three groups of macerals(liptinite,vitrinite,and inertinite),with a high concentration of liptinite indicating the coal of perhydrous,thereby rendering it more reactive.Pyrite(FeS_(2))oxidation kinetics were studied by conducting the aqueous leaching experiments of coal and(OB)samples to interpret the chemical weathering under controlled laboratory conditions of various temperature and time periods,and to replicate the actual mine site leaching.Inductively coupled plasma-optical emission spectroscopy(ICP-OES)was operated to detect the disposal of some precarious elements from coal and OB samples to the leachates during our controlled leaching experiment.The Rare earth element(REE)enrichment in the samples shows the anthropogenic incorporation of the REE in the coal and OB.These experiments reveal the change in conductivity,acid producing tendency,total dissolved solid(TDS),total Iron(Fe)and dissolved Sulfate(SO_(4)^(2−))ions on progress of the leaching experiments.Moreover,the discharge of FeS_(2) via atmospheric oxidation in laboratory condition undergoes a significant growth with the rise of temperature of the reaction systems in the environment and follows pseudo first order kinetics.A bio-remediative strategies is also reported in this paper to mitigate AMD water by employing size-segregated powdered limestone and water hyacinth plant in an indigenously developed site-specific prototype station.Apart from neutralisation of AMD water,this eco-friendly AMD remediation strategy demonstrates a reduction in PHEs concentrations in the treated AMD water.

Spatio-temporal dynamics of vegetation in Jungar Banner of China during 2000–2017

It is known that the exploitation of opencast coal mines has seriously damaged the environments in the semi-arid areas.Vegetation status can reliably reflect the ecological degeneration and restoration in the opencast mining areas in the semi-arid areas.Long-time series MODIS NDVI data are widely used to simulate the vegetation cover to reflect the disturbance and restoration of local ecosystems.In this study, both qualitative(linear regression method and coefficient of variation(CoV)) and quantitative(spatial buffer analysis, and change amplitude and the rate of change in the average NDVI) analyses were conducted to analyze the spatio-temporal dynamics of vegetation during 2000–2017 in Jungar Banner of Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, China, at the large(Jungar Banner and three mine groups) and small(three types of functional areas: opencast coal mining excavation areas, reclamation areas and natural areas) scales.The results show that the rates of change in the average NDVI in the reclamation areas(20%–60%) and opencast coal mining excavation areas(10%–20%) were considerably higher than that in the natural areas(<7%).The vegetation in the reclamation areas experienced a trend of increase(3–5 a after reclamation)-decrease(the sixth year of reclamation)-stability.The vegetation in Jungar Banner has a spatial heterogeneity under the influences of mining and reclamation activities.The ratio of vegetation improvement area to vegetation degradation area in the west, southwest and east mine groups during 2000–2017 was 8:1, 20:1 and 33:1, respectively.The regions with the high CoV of NDVI above 0.45 were mainly distributed around the opencast coal mining excavation areas, and the regions with the CoV of NDVI above 0.25 were mostly located in areas with low(28.8%) and medium-low(10.2%) vegetation cover.The average disturbance distances of mining activities on vegetation in the three mine groups(west, southwest and east) were 800, 800 and 1000 m, respectively.The greater the scale of mining, the farther the disturbance distances of mining activities on vegetation.We conclude that vegetation reclamation will certainly compensate for the negative impacts of opencast coal mining activities on vegetation.Sufficient attention should be paid to the proportional allocation of plant species(herbs and shrubs) in the reclamation areas, and the restored vegetation in these areas needs to be protected for more than 6 a.Then, as the repair time increased, the vegetation condition of the reclamation areas would exceed that of the natural areas.

Estimation of carbon sequestration in reclaimed coalmine degraded land dominated by Albizia lebbeck, Dalbergia sissoo and Bambusa arundinacea plantation： a case study from Jharia Coalfields, India

Reclaimed mined lands provide an excellent opportunity to sequester carbon and combat global warming. Carbon sequestration on reclaimed sites depend on age of reclamation, composition of species, geomining conditions （soil characteristics） and prevailing climate. The aims of the present study were to calculate carbon （C）--stock of biomass of 4 years old plantation （dominated by Albizia lebbeck, Dalbergia sissoo and Bambusa arundinacea）, understorey vegetation and litter, soil organic carbon in reclaimed minesoil （RMS） and compare with reference forest site. Allometric equation was used for the estimation of biomass C stock and found 13.0 Mg C ha i （A lebbeck 7.8 Mg C ha-I, D sissoo 3.5 Mg C ha-l and B. arundincea 1.2 Mg C ha-l）, while stock of understorey vegetation was 0.98 Mg C ha-~. In RMS, C stock was 16.3 Mg C ha-1, out of which inorganic C contributed 1.7 g kg-l （8 % of total soil C）, Coal C 8.7 g kg^-1 （43 % of total soil C） and biogenic C 9.8 g kg^-1 （49 % of total soil C）. Total C stock in reclaimed site was calculated as 30.3 Mg C ha^-1（equivalent to 111 Mg CO2 ha-b. The study concluded that （i） coal C is responsible for overestimation of C stock in RMS （ii） Maximun C stock stored in aboveground biomass component and （iii） reclaimed mined lands will take approximately 17 years to reach the level of C stock of reference forest site in dry tropical climate.

Applying real time seismic monitoring technology for slope stability assessment—An Indian opencast coal mine perspective

This paper outlines the results obtained from real time microseismic monitoring of an opencast coal mine in South India.The objective of the study is to investigate the stress changes within the rockmass along the slope due to underground mine development operation and their impact on the stability of the highwall slope.The installed microseismic systems recorded the seismic triggerings down toà2 moment magnitude.In general,most of the events recorded during the monitoring period are weak in seismic energy.The study adopts a simple and more reliable tool to characterize the seismically active zone for assessing the stability of the highwall in real time.The impact of underground working on the slope is studied on the basis of the seismic event impact contours and seismic clusters.During the monitoring period,it is observed that the intensity of the overall microseismic activity along the slope due to the mine development operations did not cause any adverse impact on the highwall stability.

Prediction of blast-induced flyrock in Indian limestone mines using neural networks

Frequency and scale of the blasting events are increasing to boost limestone production. Mines areapproaching close to inhabited areas due to growing population and limited availability of land resourceswhich has challenged the management to go for safe blasts with special reference to opencast mining.The study aims to predict the distance covered by the flyrock induced by blasting using artificial neuralnetwork （ANN） and multi-variate regression analysis （MVRA） for better assessment. Blast design andgeotechnical parameters, such as linear charge concentration, burden, stemming length, specific charge,unconfined compressive strength （UCS）, and rock quality designation （RQD）, have been selected as inputparameters and flyrock distance used as output parameter. ANN has been trained using 95 datasets ofexperimental blasts conducted in 4 opencast limestone mines in India. Thirty datasets have been used fortesting and validation of trained neural network. Flyrock distances have been predicted by ANN, MVRA,as well as further calculated using motion analysis of flyrock projectiles and compared with the observeddata. Back propagation neural network （BPNN） has been proven to be a superior predictive tool whencompared with MVRA. 2014 Institute of Rock and Soil Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences. Production and hosting byElsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

DISPATCHING REAL-TIME MODEL OF COMPUTER-CONTROLLED TRUCK

In order to recover ore as much as possible, a computer-controlled truck real-time dispatching model is conducted under the conditions of Qidashan lron Mine. It can not only acquire the optimization of shovel and truck operation, but also satisfy requirements of blending ores.The simulation results indicate the effectiveness of the model developed.